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WMJI (105.7 FM broadcasting) is a commercial radio station licensed to Cleveland, Ohio, featuring a classic hits format dubbed "Majic 105.7". Owned by iHeartMedia, the station serves Greater Cleveland and much of the surrounding Northeast Ohio. WMJI's studios are located in downtown Cleveland's Gateway District at the Six Six Eight Building, while the transmitter resides in the Cleveland suburb of Parma. In addition to a standard analog transmission, WMJI broadcasts over two HD Radio channels and is also available online via iHeartRadio.
When the NBC-Westinghouse trade was reversed on June 19, 1965, the station reverted to NBC ownership. The call letters were changed to WKYC-FM to match those of the AM station, which kept the popular "KY" slogan and identity Westinghouse brought into Cleveland."Philadelphia circle is complete," and "Nine-year history of that trade in Philadelphia." Broadcasting, August 3, 1964, pp. 23-25. [4] [5] [6] WKYC-FM played similar middle of the road (MOR) music to WKYC, but for part of the day, it used its own disc jockeys and had less chatter than the AM broadcasting station.
In 1975, the format was changed to album-oriented rock and the station identified itself as "M-105". The station used the slogan "The Home of Continuous Music" and was led by former WIXY program director Eric Stevens. M-105 competed aggressively with rock station rival WMMS for ratings by programming a more limited playlist. Never able to eclipse WMMS in the ratings, by 1980 M-105 began billing itself as "Cleveland's Classic rock", playing a mix of rock music from the mid-1960s to the late 1970s, with a few current rock titles from veteran artists on its playlist.Scott, Jane. "The Happening" The Plain Dealer June 13, 1980: Friday 30
John Lanigan began his long-running morning show with former WHKW newscaster John Webster on September 17, 1985, returning to Cleveland after a brief stint at WMGG in Tampa, Florida. He replaced husband-and-wife team Dan Deely and Kim Scott after they resigned, citing that the job had put strains on their marriage.
When co-owned WBBG (1260 AM) dumped its adult standards format on October 29, 1987, it simulcast WMJI's programming for a time - and took the WMJI call letters - until it was sold off. Therefore, 105.7 FM technically was WMJI-FM for several months in 1988. When WBBG became WRDZ with a Christian radio format, the FM station returned to the WMJI call letters without the FM suffix. In 1988, Jacor Communications entered a local marketing agreement (LMA) with Legacy Broadcasting, headed by former Malrite executive Carl Hirsch. Legacy took over the running of WMJI and bought the station outright in 1990.
John Gorman, former program director of legendary Cleveland rock station WMMS, was brought in to redesign WMJI as a 100% rock oldies format, with no pop or dance hits. Under his guidance, the station immediately posted major ratings increases and became one of the top performing stations in Cleveland. Gorman also reunited with former WMMS artist and co-creator of the station's "Buzzard" mascot, David Helton, to create a new logo, which was featured in early print ads and billboards for WMJI. Gorman chose the "Majic 105.7" font as a tribute to the 1967-era logo for Boston's WRKO, which, under the direction of Program Director Mel Phillips, was an influence on Gorman's programming.
WMJI owner Legacy Broadcasting was later renamed OmniAmerica in 1994 and sold the station to Nationwide Communications in 1997. By then, WMJI had established consistent ratings dominance in the Cleveland market under Program Director Denny Sanders, a market veteran who replaced John Gorman. (Gorman relocated to CBS Radio in Detroit). WMJI was led by its highly rated morning show featuring Lanigan, Webster, and local comedian Jimmy Malone. Webster left the station amid a health scare in 1997, while the "Lanigan & Malone Show" remained intact until Lanigan's retirement on March 31, 2014. During the period when Lanigan and Malone hosted mornings, WMJI achieved the highest total weekly listenership of any Cleveland radio station in the decade of the 1990s, winning the National Association of Broadcasters "Large Market Station of the Year" honor in 1998. It later became the FM flagship station for Cleveland Browns football broadcasts from 1999 to 2001.
Of those stations, only WYNT still uses the "Majic" name and shares a similar logo to WMJI, although the station switched to adult contemporary music. Early in November 2006, WWLV in Lexington, North Carolina, a station owned by "Davidson County Broadcasting", changed formats to "Majic 94.1" - replete with a similar logo to WMJI's. This continued until March 2010, when the station changed formats.
On July 30, 2022, the station was branded as "Elton 105.7" from noon to midnight, only playing Elton John songs during his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour when he performed in Cleveland that night.
Under the oldies format, WMJI has been recognized at the NAB Marconi Radio Awards. The station has been named Large Market Station of the Year twice (1998, 2003), and three times as Oldies Station of the Year (2002, 2004, 2006). Longtime morning team John Lanigan and Jimmy Malone were also named Large Market Personality of the Year in 2005.
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